1st Paint Job - Need a little help!

[kanner1]

Ok here is the mission: 1964 Chevy C-10, pro street pickup completely being done in my garage. This is my first attempt at body/paint work.

Much to my surprise the bodywork is coming out quite well - the truck was completely taken apart. I am using the new dupli-color paint shop system because I was worried about mixing paints & worrying about recoat issues. With this system there is no recoat window or mixing - it is laquer based.

Yesterday I sprayed the interior of the cab & the engine compartment (2 coats) - the color is a metallic bright silver. I am using an average quality gravity spray gun.

My questions are
1) The base coat paint was quite a bit rough to the touch - is that normal for metallics or did I have the gun set wrong? The body was prepped smoooth & the paint seemed to go on well. I laid 2 coats of clear today, it helped a little but not much, still rough. I thought the clear would smooth everything.
2) I used about 3 quarts of paint for the cab interior, jambs & engine bay. Is that about normal? It seemed like alot.

Thanks so much to all that reply!
Steve

[Serge]

The problem you describe could be caused by dry spray or be caused by not tacking (wiping with a tack cloth) between coats in a poorly ventilated garage. The paint in suspension dries as soon as it hits the air and falls back on the car as dust. You then burry that dust under the next coat of paint and make a rough surface. This is especially true when not painting in a paint booth. Thus the importance of using the tack cloth between coats...

I am not going to comment too longly on duplicolor paints...its a low quality system, a very low quality system in fact. You should realy re-consider the paint choice for the exterior of the car. As for mixing, its not that complicated and the gang here will be more than happy to help you all along the way.

Now, even if its bad paint, you should still be able to lay a flat and wet coat of paint. I would practice on some scrap until you can adjust your gun and spraying speed to get a nice smooth coat. You can play with the gun's adjustments to get the finest even pattern of droplets from the gun. Atomization is key here. Sometimes it helps to close the material knob (the needle adjustment) a little and slow down the spraying speed.

Let the coat dry to the touch then use a tack cloth to remove all the overspray dust that will have settled on the car...

[kanner1]

Thanks for the input sounds dead-on. I believe I will switch paints for the exterior that is why I started with the inside first.

As for the paint I have done is there anything I can do to make it better? Lay on more clear?

[Serge]

The more you lay on the more texture its going to have...

Too bad, you painted the most difficult areas to sand...but appart from sanding the texture flat and re-basing and clearing there is little to do to remove the texture...maybe you could sand the most visible areas, re-base and clear...